
Book y^J^ 




CompIimentB of 



MISS LOUIE M. MORRIS. 



nORRlS & GRAHAA\. 

riNE STAT12NERY PRINTERS, 

BUNKER BLDG., 100 W. 9th ST. 



'PHONE 1393. 



This sketch was awarded the Fifty Dollar Special Premium offered by S. A. BBOWN & CO., dealers in 
Iiumber and Grain throughont Kansas and Missouri, at the Missouri & Kansas Inter-State Fair, held at 
Kansas City, Mo., Sept. 22 to Oct. 1, 1890, for the best essay on '"The State of Kansas and Her Natural Re- 
sources,' published in any daily paper in Kansas or Missouri." The article was published in the Kansas City Globe, 
Sunday, Sept. 21, 1890. 



THE STATE §r KANSAS 



AND HER NATURAL RESOURCES." 



WRITTEN BY W. O. GRAHAM, 

(Morris & Graham, printers, Kansas City, Mo.) 



S, A. BROWN & CO, 

LUMBER AND GRAIN DEALERS, 



.505 Keith & Perry Bkrg., 



Kansas City, Mo. 



.Q^3 



1 UC-. nM ^-Vrv _ . ^A\' . ):^ c_ 



THE STATE OF KANSAS AND HER NATURAL 
RESOURCES." 



BY W. O. GRAHAM. 



From the Kansas City Globe, Sept. 21, 1890. 

The sentiment expressed years ago by a clergyman that ''Doubtless God could make 
a better state than Kansas but he never did,"' has grown and intensified until to-day thous- 
ands firmly believe Kansas is, or is to be, all her most sanguine friends ever dreamed or 
predicted. The state is unique in her history, her people, her climate, and her soil. 
Thirty-six years ago the territory was thrown open to settlement by the passage of the bill 
which annulled all compromises with slavery. Both north and south realized the impor- 
tance of the fair domain, and undertook her tutilage to rear her up to statehood — each 
section sending settlers, and Missouri voters, to mould the policy of the new aspirant. 
From this chaotic state ''bleeding Kansas,'' young in years but tried and old in experi- 
ence, asked for admission into the union. It was the darkest day in the nations's history; 
Kansas alone stood unmoved. She was admitted; but as she entered seven slave states 
withdrew and as many more threatened to follow. Kansas then officially suggested to the 
nation to maintain hei- rights, as she had done, and pledged her support in the fight for 
human liberty. How well she kept that pledge history tells: she sent a larger per cent of 
her population to the war and lost a larger per cent in battle than any other state in the 
union. 

Kansas retains the character of her first permanent settlei's, who were courage- 
ous, liberty-loving, and intellectual, and she boasts to-day the highest type of English 
speaking people on the globe; as a whole her denizens speak purer English than the people 
of Boston or any city or shire in England. The rustic and hayseed farmer is the product 
of other states, not of Kansas; the custom of traveling, with unrivaled facilities, to- 
gether with the educational advantages of various kinds, are all against the development 
of the backwoods farmer of Maine or "cracker" of Florida. 

Kansas is progressing along all the lines of human thought and industry. She is 
foremost and in earnest in the temperance movement. She has accorded to woman more 
rights and privileges than perhaps any other state. 

Only a few years ago there was a saying on the Santa Fe railroad, "No Sabbath 
beyond Great Bend, no God beyond Pueblo;'' less than ten years ago Dodge City, the 
Texas cattle shipping point, bore the epithet formerly bestowed upon Wichita and New- 
ton, of being the wickedest city in the United States; now it is the site of a theological 
college, and all the towns along that line would compare favorably with the average New 
England village in morality and intelligence, but far ahead in public enterprise. In 
proof of the general intelligence of the people it might be stated that a large majority of 



the delegates to the three state political conventions this fall were farmers, and the farmers 
are dictating legislation in a manner that has already made their influence felt in congress. 

It takes time, wealth, schools, and churches and a settled state of society to produce 
the highest culture, and no people realize and admit this fact more freely than Kansans; 
but they claim their broader and more liberal views, their generous hospitality, their lib- 
erality in a financial way and public spirit largely compensates for their lack of that 
more ornamental culture. Many a Kansan educated in the East and familiar with her 
every advantage prefers the home education and social influences, and as a matter of 
choice educates his children in the colleges of his adopted state. The state university and 
state agricultural college each enroll over 500 students; while the state normal has about 
1200 students, over two-thirds of whom are the sons and daughters of farmers. Half of the 
graduates of the state agricultural college are now engaged in agricultural and mechanical 
pursuits. 

Without going into dry and incomprehensible statistics, a few general facts may be 
interesting: The state has nearly 9,000 miles of railway, five and a half miles to every 
1,000 population, or one mile to every nine and one-half square miles of territory. Only 
four other states publish as many newspapers (812) according toRowelFs Newspaper Direc- 
tory. Of the 524,206 school population, 405,454 were enrolled in the schools in 1889. There 
were then 8,819 school houses. The school property is estimated at $11,000,000. The in- 
terest of the state school fund now exceeds $500,000 per annum, which is apportioned 
among the common schools of the state, and thousands of acres of school land yet remain 
unsold which will go to increase this fund. The rock salt deposits are sufficient to supply 
the nation's demands for all time to come. Gypsum is found in unlimited quantitJ^ More 
books have been written about Kansas and Kansas history than any other state in the union 
— now upwards of 400 volumes. It has been truly said that Kansas is the child of the 
north and the newspapers. The growth of the state is without a parallel; in thirty years 
Kansas reached a population of 1,500,000, which the great states of New York and Penn- 
sylvania were nearly 150 years attaining. While far behind many other states, Kansas 
has an accessible coal supply that is practically inexhaustible. Her lead and zinc mines 
are also extensive and priceless. 

What are the natural resources of Kansas? Drouth, grasshoppers, wind, real 
estate agents, etc., many believe; it is not true. These are rather the incidental products 
of the vast and diversified endowments of nature. The principal natural resources of the 
state are climate, soil, salt, coal, and gypsum, in the order named. Climate does not 
count for as much in Kansas as in central Florida, for there climate well located is worth 
from $100 to $500 per acre — the soil is shipped in in the way of fertilizers. The climate is, 
generally speaking, everything in an agricultural and fruit gi-owing country. The fertil- 
ity of the soil is only relative; a perfect desert may contain a perfect soil so far as the life 
producing elements are concerned. Sterile soil is not as common as sterile climate, though 
the former is generally blamed. The climate of Kansas has engaged the pen of poet and 
historian and delights and gives health and vigor every yea,r to thousands who find the 
north and east unsqited to their constitutions, 



The annoying- wind ceases to a great extent as the country is imjiroved and hedges, 
forests and orchards takes the place of the once unbroken expanse of prairie. The inde- 
scribable and intolerable sultry nights so frequent in Iowa and Illinois are unknown here 
in this high and pure atmosphere . It is yeta debatable question whether or not the rain- 
fall is increasing with the furrows of the plow, but an admitted fact that the eastern half of 
the state, at least, equals any other section of the union as an agricultural country, and 
who, familiar with the history of the state would dare to speak disparingly of the future 
of the newly settled portion? Streams in eastern Kansas once always dry in summer now 
flow the year around and drouth is no more frequent and not as injurious as in many of the 
best states of the union. 

Kansas soil cannot be compared with that of any section north or east; it is peculiar 
in many respects and apparently created expressly for the dry, clear climate with which 
it is associated. The marvelous stories of "'twenty-one feet of soil," told back in the '60s, 
have baen verified by the geologists, who go so far as to say that with a little exposure to 
air and rain the earth at the depth of from 50 to 250 feet in the extreme western portion of 
the state is a rich fertile soil almost identical with the surface. Good authorities say that 
with proper cultivation the driest and highest prairies in the state will yield fair crops of 
grains and grasses adapted to them. Such as rice-corn; kaffer corn, sorghum, broom corn, 
millet, etc. Occasional deep subsoiling, with good spring cultivation, and frequent but 
shallow summer cultivation, is now generally admitted to be the proper method of hand- 
ling the soil in the so-called dry sections. It is not so much a question of more rain as 
how to retain and utilize what now falls. The general character of the state is a warm 
sandy loam, a quick dry soil. Protracted and heavy rains, which are not so unfrequent as 
most people suppose in Kansas, injure crops in very few places, generally the farmer is 
able to cultivate the soil in a few hours after the heaviest rain, and muddy roads are of 
very short duration. In the southern part of the state plowing is often done every month 
in th3 year and winter plowing works no injury to the soil. 

The salt area of the state is more extensive than the coal section, and the demand 
alone will settle the extent of the industry. Commencing about 250 miles west of the east 
line of the state, with irregular outline is an area probably equaling the fourth of the state, 
underlaid with salt deposits known to be fn places as much as 100 feet in thickness. Kan- 
sas is now one of the principal producers of this article and will doubtless soon have no 
compatition in the west. With this exhaustless supply and the cheapness of production, 
salt will probably be used extensively for fertilizing purposes. 

Gypsum in found in vast quantities in many sections of the central portion of the 
state and mills are in operation in several counties preparing it for "plaster," plaster paris, 
etc. 

Coal is found in the eastern and southeastern portions of the state in veins varying 
from 1 7 to 55 inches and underlies a large area. The coal is generally of fair quality and 
some of it of a high grade. 



Lead and zinc are found in great abundance and are extensively mined in the south- 
eastern corner of the state in the lower geological formations. 

Limestone of fine quality is found in abundance throughout the eastern half of the 
state and much of it is quarried and shipped for building purposes. Chalk, fire clay and 
many other minerals are found in varying quantities. There has never been a complete 
geological survey of the state and most of the mineral discoveries have been accidental. 

As a grain and stock growing country Kansas stands well in the front rank. The 
wheat crop last year equaled one-fourteenth of the entire yield of the United States, and 
Kansas produced over one-eighth of all the corn grown. In the way of big wheat yields 
seven counties this year report fields averaging from 45 to 6oi bushels and thirty-five coun- 
ties fields averaging from 30 to 45 bushels per acre. Yields of from 100 to 115 bushels of 
oats are not uncommon. 

There were 1,298,274 pounds of sugar manufactured in Kansas in 1889, and 547,000 
barrels of salt were made by the seventeen companies in four counties during the same 
year. Nine of these companies were organized in 1888 and eight of them in the spring of 
1889. 

No new state has made so bright a record in fruit gi-owing as Kansas. The southern 
portion especially seems to be perfectly adapted to that industry and will probably be the 
horicultural garden of the Mississippi valley. The peach crop in central southern Kansas 
is ahead of the shipping facilities and peaches are selling in many counties as low as 10 
cents a bushel, and thousands of bushels will rot in the orchards. The pure dry atmos- 
phere seems to suit the grape, and vineyards are as productive though not as plentiful as 
peach orchards. Sweet potatoes and watermelons likewise seem to be perfectly adapted to 
that section. 

Church statistics are not at hand to give exact figures, but Kansas stands at about 
the head of the column in the per cent of her children in Sunday schools and her adults in 
churches. 

In conclusion: Kansas is a new state; her industries are all in their infancy; she is 
yet testing grains and fruits to discover those best adapted to the climate and soil; her 
citizens are largely strangers in a new country, unfamiliar with the peculiarities of farm- 
ing here; but she is laying the foundation on solid business, social, and educational princi- 
ples and has the best material of every description out of which she proposes to build up a 
great commonwealth. 

An Additional Note— The question is often asked: What effect has prohibtion 
had on the prosperity and growth of the state? The following figures from the official 
records of the state will speak for themselves: Total value of all property in 1880 was 
$160,570,751; in 18*89 it was 360,813,901; gain 116 per cent. Invested in manufacturies in 
1880 $11,192,315; in 1888 $29,016,750; gain 159 per cent. In acres of field crops the gain from 
1880 to 1889 was 90 per cent; in value 64 per cent. In value of live stock 88 per cent. In 
value of school property 86 per cent. In children of school age 56 per cent. In num- 
der church buildings lO"^;^ per cent. In value of church property 164 per cent. 

The census for 1890 give the state a population of 1,680,000, a gain in ten years of 69 
per cent, which makes it fourth in percentage of growth. In excess of assets over debts 
Kansas had in 1889 $4,921,572 an impi^ovement since 1880 of over 300 per cent. Ten years 
ago Kansas stood seventh in this list now she stands third. New York and Minnesota alone 
being in better financial condition. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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